​I take full political responsibility for Romania’s delay to join Schengen, President Traian Basescu declared on Wednesday at a meeting of the Superior Council of Magistracy. He said that the Summer justice report will read that the Council lacks credibility due to the way its members were elected. Basescu urged Council members to postpone the election of a president until January 20th after the decision of the Constitutional Court on whether the Council’s validation in the Senate was constitutional.

Here are his most important statements

• Our attempt to improve the report on justice which will be released this Summer does not seem to be a success  
  
  
• Some observations are correct, some a bit exaggerated
    
• In a judicial system like ours, we cannot say there are vital delays 
   
• High corruption cases could have been treated differently  
  
  
• I believe we need to consolidate our effort to explain the way our judicial system works 
   
• We need to prove that the judicial can fight against corruption  
  
  
• With or without our fault, the cooperation and verification mechanism was annexed  
  
  
• I take full political responsibility of Romania’s delay to join Schengen, as chief of state
   
• Everybody needs to be accountable for their actions

Observations to the magistrates

• The Council approved the plans to professionally train magistrates 
  
  
• However they were not implemented  
  
  
• There should be a feedback to all evaluation programs 
  
  
• Transparency in the Council and the Higher Court of Justice needs to exist 
   
• It is not normal for the Council to block the law on magistrates’ accountability 
  
  
• I urge you to unlock the law and re-evaluate the position of the council on this matter 
   
• The justice report that will be released this Summer will read that the Council lacks credibility for the way elections were conducted 
  
  
• We need to find the best solution for this institution